The sound shivers through the walls, through the table, through the window frame, and into my finger. These distraction-oholics. These focus-ophobics. Old George Orwell got it backward. Big Brother isn't watching. He's singing and dancing. He's pulling rabbits out of a hat. Big Brother’s busy holding your attention every moment you're awake. He's making sure you're always distracted. He's making sure you're fully absorbed. He's making sure your imagination withers. Until it's as useful as your appendix. He's making sure your attention is always filled. And this being fed, it's worse than being watched. With the world always filling you, no one has to worry about what's in your mind. With everyone's imagination atrophied, no one will ever be a threat to the world.

This is not a blog.

It's a personal challenge.

I've tried to write a blog since I heard about blogs. I started one about art, one about random thoughts, one with funny links... Nothing lasted more than a couple of weeks. Until I discovered Posterous. I thought it was genius... and then it shut down and I only noticed it when it was too late to recover anything. Now I've fallen in love with Squarespace, and I've decided to try again, hoping neither my discipline nor technology will give up this time.